• CMO Magazine, Wednesday, December 28, 2005 2 PM

Sometimes a marketer's worst enemy can be found in its own backyard. In this list of marketing blunders, CMO magazine takes a look at the Top Ten examples of companies shooting themselves in the foot. One of the big winners, however, was not a traditional marketer--it was the Bush Administration, with its laundry list of major gaffes led by the president's now infamous quote to FEMA Director Michael Brown during the height of the agency's miscues over Hurricane Katrina: "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." Other leaders included Coca-Cola's launch of Coke Zero, an effort that was forecast to capture 1.5 percent of the volume share of the supermarket soda category but snared only 0.8 percent when last checked. The list also includes mistakes by marketers such as Dell Computer, the airlines Northwest and US Airways, and Ford Motor Co.

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